Smashing!

If we ever start to believe that we're living in a little civilised oasis here in our new place, and forget that we're actually part of the second largest urban conurbation in the UK, the recent spate of vandalism is more than enough to act as a wake-up call. After a lull of some months, suddenly everywhere we look there are smashed bus shelters once again, their sad little piles of broken glass littering the morning pavements as we drive to work.

It must be a sad and boring life indeed if the best you can do for entertainment is drive around the streets of Manchester in a beat-up old jalopy with a couple of mates and a baseball bat, and vent your frustrations on a load of defenceless bus shelters. The satisfaction you get from the *pop* as the glass shatters and the *tinkle* as it falls to the ground must be short-lived. Do you feel any remorse? No, I don't suppose you even know what it means. Do you ever think about the people who have to use the smashed bus shelters every day? They're pretty much people like you, except most of them will be on their way to work - another concept that I expect doesn't have much meaning for you.

I guess Manchester City Council have worked out the commercials and figure that it's cheaper to continually replace the smashed panels of glass with more glass, rather than build their bus shelters out of more durable materials. They must do, because smashed shelters have been a feature of our urban landscape for at least five years. Or maybe they think if the yobs take their anger out on the shelters, they'll leave other more sensitive targets, like people, alone.